senate candidate from illinois barack obama announced his arrival as the moef exciting young american persona in life. he was a stranger that came to town and life would never be the same. perhaps more than any other political figure, he has used speeches and set pieces to define his character, tell his story and propel actual political events. the convention speech comes to mind as does his incredible philadelphia speech on race. in the next few weeks, he'll deliver two huge speeches, inauguration speech and state of the union address. he'll tell a story about the country, stories about voters and continue to tell the story of barack obama. a story not about him as a human being but him as a character that he and the people around him have consciously constructed. and if that sounds overly cynical, no one is more aware of the distance between the man barack obama and the public image of same than the president himself. earlier this year he told michael lewis of "vanity fair," one of the things you realize fairly quick think is there a character out there people see called barack obam